Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Avid teapot collector Rose Freemont takes a break from her Victorian tea house only to find a new mystery brewing elsewhere. Rose is off to the annual convention of the International Teapot Collector’s Society. Her granddaughter Sophie is minding the tea house while she’s away.

Rose is eager for teapot expert Zunia Pettigrew to appraise a prized antique teapot. When Zunia is rude and declares the pot a fake, Rose is really steamed. After Zunia’s found dead beside Rose’s dinged-in teapot, Sophie must rush to her grandmother’s aid and find the real killer.

My Review:Shadow of a Spout is a cozy mystery. It's the second book in a series. You don't need to read the previous book to understand this one, and this story didn't spoil the whodunit of the previous novel.

This mystery was a clue-based, puzzle mystery. There were plenty of clues, plenty of suspects, and even clues that eliminate suspects from the list. Whodunit seemed the most...motivated to me, but I wasn't sure until the last clues fell into place. Sophie figured it out just before whodunit pulls out a gun (allowing Sophie to save someone else's life--yay!).

I like how Sophie--and Rose--are logical thinkers and go about sifting through the clues and asking questions in a logic way. One problem for cozy mystery writers is to justify the heroine getting involved. Once evidence is uncovered that shows Rose is being set up, Sophie decides to duplicate the police's work so she can deliver the murderer to the police wrapped up in a bow. Though she is generally cooperative with the police and didn't look down on them, I didn't care for her smug attitude in that moment and I hope it doesn't come to dominate these fun stories.

There was no sex. There was a very minor amount of mild bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this fun, clue-filled mystery.

If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

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About Me

My name is Debbie. I'm a single female in my thirties. I have three book review blogs: one for well-written, clean fiction; one for nonfiction (memoirs, history, military, religion, and social issues); and a book club for Christian nonfiction.

My other review blogs

Why this blog?

I like to read, but it can be hard to find clean mainstream fiction anymore. Hopefully this blog will help others who have similar reading tastes to find clean novels to read.

In my reviews, I try to point out elements that I think readers may wish to know which might influence their decision to read a book. I'm not trying to convince people not to read a book as I'm fully aware that some things which bother me won't bother others at all. So if a book sounds fun to you, certainly give it a try!

Disclosure StatementI'm not paid to review books. I do receive free review copies from publishers, authors, etc., but I also review books I've bought or checked out of the library. I review all books by the same standard, no matter the source. My readers are assuming I am, and the publishers expect it.